ARTICLES ABOUT HOUSING DEVELOPMENTS BY DATE - PAGE 3

The final governmental hurdle has been cleared to bring a long-awaited veterans cemetery to Bucks County. You've heard this before? This time, cemetery proponents say they mean it. The Upper Makefield Township Board of Supervisors signed off Monday night on homebuilder Toll Bros. Inc.'s plans to build 45 new homes on property known as the Melsky tract, clearing the way for the homebuilder to sell 200 adjacent acres to the federal Department of Veterans Affairs for the cemetery.

Palmer Township Planning Commission approved a preliminary plan from Easton developer Strausser Enterprises to build a 249-unit housing development on 63 acres off Van Buren Road. The development, dubbed Villages at Wolf's Run, would have 242 townhouses, four duplex homes and three single-family homes. Strausser Enterprises, as part of the development agreement with the township, will construct a bridge on Van Buren Road spanning Shoeneck Creek. Sal Panto Jr., Strausser Enterprises chief executive officer, said the cost of the 6-foot-high, 72-foot-long bridge is $1.4 million.

By Kelly Madsen Special to The Morning Call - Freelance | August 30, 2007

A developer who wants to build 125 homes on Locust Valley Golf Course has filed a $2.4 million federal lawsuit against Upper Saucon Township, most of its supervisors and its manager, claiming they violated the builder's civil rights in denying its plan. At the heart of the matter is public sewer capacity. McGrath Homes of Langhorne wants to connect its proposed Locust Valley Singles development to Upper Saucon's municipal sewer. Supervisors denied preliminary plan approval a year ago because they said the township's sewage treatment plant has reached its capacity.

Stephen Sechriest is used to being interrogated about taxes and traffic and housing developments. Richland Townships manager has had to adjust to a new set of questions recently, though  ones about shopping. Id say over the past year, the question I got asked more than any other is, When is the Target opening?  Sechriest said this week. People have been anxiously awaiting it. The wait is over. Its taken longer than expected, but the popular retail chain has opened a new department store at Route 309 and Pumping Station Road.

The fifth incarnation of a 20-lot housing development in Towamensing Township got preliminary approval from the Carbon County Planning Commission on Tuesday. The Shire at Emerald Hills is proposed by developer Richard J. Morrissey on Koch Road, abutting the Carbon/Monroe county line. The plan calls for 20 lots on 33.6 acres with on-lot water and sewage. This time, the plan complies with township land development ordinances, planners said. On July 9, Towamensing planners voted to send the plans to township supervisors before taking them to engineers.

Recently, I spoke to a woman who traveled to India. She said all the waterways there were white because of pollution. In the United States, we take life-giving resources for granted. We assume we'll get fresh, drinkable water every time we turn on a faucet, but we keep throwing garbage and chemicals into our streams and rivers. We expect to find grocery stores filled with food, but we keep killing farmland with housing developments. Some of the solutions are simple: Tuck the empty cigarette pack into your jeans, instead of throwing it on the ground.

A housing development and a project that includes a restaurant and three-story office building were recommended for preliminary approval Tuesday by the Palmer Planning Commission. The housing development, Maple Shade Estates, contains 45 single-family homes in Palmer and 33 in neighboring Bethlehem Township. The project received a recommendation for preliminary approval last month from the Bethlehem Township Planning Commission, said Stanley Margle, the attorney representing developer CMC Development Corp.

Three years ago this month, a Christmas tree with all its ornaments, lights and other trimmings was stolen from the lobby of the Easton Housing Authority's Walter House high-rise apartment building. The low-income senior citizens and disabled residents who erected the tree had no means to solve the theft. Next year, they may get some help. Easton Housing Authority officials met last week with a half-dozen vendors interested in winning a contract to install cameras and other security measures on authority properties.

BETHLEHEM Eight months into the year, Bethlehem has executed a $469,000-a-year contract with the city's Housing Authority to provide police coverage this year and next. The two-year contract is based on compensating six officers, at the rate of $49 an hour each, to patrol the authority's housing developments. The contract states that the city can't exceed $469,000 in a given year, but the bill could wind up being less if there are fewer patrols. "This is a little later than we would have liked, but this happens during negotiations," city business administrator Dennis Reichard said.

Upper Saucon Township's planning commission on Tuesday unanimously recommended denial of a preliminary plan to build 125 single-family homes on what is now Locust Valley Golf Course, just south of Coopersburg. McGrath Homes Inc. of Langhorne, which proposes the development, hopes township supervisors will reverse that recommendation later this month. If supervisors agree with the Planning Commission, the developer may appeal the rejection in court. McGrath needs public sewers to serve its homes in the proposed development.